S*F Two month Zeitgeist

[unrequited]

A lot of the internal workings of Shining Force are private, but I can share the zeitgeist I just compiled from the first two months of stats... we have almost 30 lvl60's, and we should have a full raid group of 60's within the month. I put together a 15mb (yeah... heh) excel file which automatically generates stats based on the week's gains, and from these weekly reports, I've generated a bunch of interesting graphs. Take a look if you're interested.


Graphs like this:
http://www.christopherwu.net/sfwow/twomonths.jpg

and this:
http://www.christopherwu.net/sfwow/first10.jpg

and this:
http://www.christopherwu.net/sfwow/classbyaveragelevel.jpg

and this:
http://www.christopherwu.net/sfwow/classbyplayerpercentage.jpg

Being able to play with the numbers like this has let me see so much more than a weekly report, and this was the surprise I was hinting at a couple weeks ago. It's also why I didn't have last week's stats taken, because I was brainstorming this. It took me the better part of 4 hours to program, and I'm very happy with the results.

A couple interesting things I noticed:

-if you look at the first graph, we have a bunch of flatliners, be they unused alts, extended vacationers, etc. these are accounts which haven't gained a level in 6+ weeks. they're not taking away from level averages, or adding to class %'s though, because i don't factor in people who haven't gained a level for that week's stats.

-the new guys who have been recently invited into the guild are some of the hardest working, as you can see by the slopes of the lines which start within the past month. they're meeting or beating the average level gain, and they're catching up to regulars who have played for the full 2 months in 2 weeks time.

-there is no real "grind" in this game. if you look at the average player's level curve, it's pretty much a straight level climb, not decreasing exponential as you'd assume. the only people who's curves resemble a decreasing exponential curve are the early 60er's.

I obviously won't be doing a zeitgeist every week, but I figured a 2 moth anniversary of starting the stats was as good a reason as any, plus I got to brush up on my Excel statistics skills. Enjoy!

[blue]

nice. interesting to see in the end.

[Bryant]

That's ridiculous.

How many /played hours does the average level 60 player have?

Also... how is it that the average level for the druids in your group is so high? Do you guys have very few but high level druids? You have almost as few Hunters, but their avg level is a bit lower.

How does SF guild stand compared to other guilds in the server?

[Fist]

The guild i usually play (Ruined) with has many 60's and no level 60 druids.

Yet, they still beat Onyxia first.

But the problem is, people are getting bored quick of the WoW end-game, and some people are already taking breaks. Oh, i agree that pvp'ing and doing the same instance is fun, but doing the same stuff over and over gets boring quick :/

I think that the Battleground + LOTS more end-game content will keep most of the hardcore crew happy.

2 crappy loot for a 1-per-week-Onyxia-kill? Hehe, not many people will want to spend hundred of hours to keep doing it :P

[blue]

Bryant, i have 490 hours In-game 1 hour at this leve (60)

http://www.wowrankings.com/viewb.htm?name=Blue&s_id=43
see for yourself.

[Bryant]

What is the crappy loot from onyxia?

You just know that she has a chance to drop mega uber

[Doc Wattson]

Lvl 60, Congrats Blue!!!

-Gary-

[blue]

w00t! =)

[blue]

now im an official "guild bitch".
heh, i help those who cant help themselves ;)

[babyseal]

A lot of the internal workings of Shining Force are private..

it is nice to see that you have chronicled this information, and presented it with efficiency and alacrity..but what happens to be so special that you are forbidden to discuss it?
just mildly curious.

[Princess]

A lot of the internal workings of Shining Force are private..

it is nice to see that you have chronicled this information, and presented it with efficiency and alacrity..but what happens to be so special that you are forbidden to discuss it?
just mildly curious.

Well, I'm not totally sure what he means by that, but he didn't post our individual accomplisments. On our private forums, we have a list of all of our members names, what level they are, alts, etc., and how we are progressing. Maybe some people wouldn't want that public for whatever reason. Or maybe he's referring to something else, I don't know. A lot of our raid discussion, PvP, loot rules, good instance information, tactics, etc. are also private for (what I would think) obvious reasons.

[babyseal]

Well, I'm not totally sure what he means by that, but he didn't post our individual accomplisments. On our private forums, we have a list of all of our members names, what level they are, alts, etc., and how we are progressing. Maybe some people wouldn't want that public for whatever reason. Or maybe he's referring to something else, I don't know. A lot of our raid discussion, PvP, loot rules, good instance information, tactics, etc. are also private for (what I would think) obvious reasons.

Oh yeah. I can see the former, personal harrassment ruins the game.
The raid discussion, PvP styles, loot rules, instances, tactics..? Obvious?

Clearing I'm missing something. I don't see how the dissemination of information can do anything beyond thoroughly testing your abilities and gaining the goodwill/admiration of those which you help.
You can't "win" by not helping others. I think it is the other way around.

If you gank another players' pull, when you are done with your quest you let him know the best places to grab the mobs that he needs. When you steal someone's ore vein, it doesn't hurt to tell him where he can find more of the same stuff. If you find an ideal balance or method to power through an instance, it wont kill you to save someone else hours of time and several gold in repairs.


That was just my view on these forums though.

[Princess]

Well, I'm not totally sure what he means by that, but he didn't post our individual accomplisments. On our private forums, we have a list of all of our members names, what level they are, alts, etc., and how we are progressing. Maybe some people wouldn't want that public for whatever reason. Or maybe he's referring to something else, I don't know. A lot of our raid discussion, PvP, loot rules, good instance information, tactics, etc. are also private for (what I would think) obvious reasons.

Oh yeah. I can see the former, personal harrassment ruins the game.
The raid discussion, PvP styles, loot rules, instances, tactics..? Obvious?

Clearing I'm missing something. I don't see how the dissemination of information can do anything beyond thoroughly testing your abilities and gaining the goodwill/admiration of those which you help.
You can't "win" by not helping others. I think it is the other way around.

If you gank another players' pull, when you are done with your quest you let him know the best places to grab the mobs that he needs. When you steal someone's ore vein, it doesn't hurt to tell him where he can find more of the same stuff. If you find an ideal balance or method to power through an instance, it wont kill you to save someone else hours of time and several gold in repairs.


That was just my view on these forums though.

Whoa, I totally ignored this thread, sorry!!! Pretty much, we don't want to make a raid on an Alliance town public. That kills the whole element of surprise to the opposing team. Any kind of strategy we have is going to be kept private because it's something that pertains to our guild. We do guild functions and sometimes combined raids, but not everything should be out there for people to steal. It's just been that way since competing with CS. Tactics are usually private. Loot rules have no place for non-SF members. Loot rules are guidelines for people to follow when grouping with other members of SF to make it fair. This includes RR loot system instead of group loot so that people aren't just rolling on everything (the NBG loot system is false because warriors can roll for cloth, but casters can't roll for mail).

It's a little different with the GameHavoc community than with a guild. Here, we discuss different things about the game, some good levelling places, tips and the like, but we're not talking about how we're going to execute a high level raid on the enemy. Another difference, is that our guild is like a family. We're able to be much more open about different topics with the knowledge that everyone is going to listen and respect our opinions. When you discuss things publicly all the time, you're going to get people who derail the topic to a point of having to search through a lot of garbage to get to where you want. That stuff doesn't happen in our boards, not because we have rules against it, but because we're all there to enjoy the information.

Now, that isn't to say that we don't help non-SFers. That couldn't be further from the truth. The explanation above is the reason why our forums are private, not anything to do with how we are in game. In game, most SFers are likely to lend a helping hand in many situations. You tell people what places they can check out, you teach 'em about their classes, lots of things really. I'm not going to speak for my whole guild, but that's usually how things happen based on our reputation.

What it comes down to, is that when you're one of the highest ranking guilds of your faction on your server, you're not going to leave yourself open for the enemy by giving out your locations, strats against the enemy, or anything else that could be used against you. I hope this helps and you don't see us as snotty little brats only out to help ourselves ;).